Hi all!

I just purchased my fourth Breville Barista Express BES870XL (I've previously purchased/set up three units for various offices in which I've worked). I had no problems setting up/using the previous three units, and was consistently pulling excellent shots. However, I've been encountering issues from the get-go with this fourth unit, and I am wondering if it's defective.

Basically, I cannot get any pressure whatsoever with this current unit. The needle is not even remotely into the espresso range. I was initially using a non-pressurized/single-wall double shot basket (which is what I typically use) - but per some advice I found online, I tried pulling a shot with no grounds, using a pressurized/single-wall single shot basket. The pressure was still absolutely nil.

I've already fiddled with the various grind size/grind amount settings when using beans, to no avail.

Is my unit simply defective and in need of a return, or am I missing something here?

Thanks in advance for your help!

If there's apparently no pressure, even on an empty pressurized basket, then there is apparently less water flowing through the brew circuit than can pass through the basket unrestricted. Unless you can verify this visually or measure this to be true (ie you're getting about a millilitre each second) I'd first suspect a bad gauge.
Does the gauge show a reasonable OPV pressure (Like 9.5 to 10.5 bar) with the blind filter in?

Forgive the stupid question, but how do I assess that? The gauge on this particular machine doesn't have numeric values for the pressure level. Also, by "blind filter," I'm assuming you mean the pressured basket without any grounds in it? Thanks!

Not sure if its included with the 870 models, but the blind filter is the rubber cleaning disc (https://www.breville.com/us/en/parts-ac ... 01517.html). You place that in the basket then lock your portafilter and start the shot. It fully chokes the extraction and should result in 9-10bar at the pressure gauge. The gauge needle typically bounces a little as the OPV regulates and releases additional pressure.

If you get no pressure, or low pressure, then you have an issue with the machine.

Got it - I used the blind filter and pulled a grounds-less shot and the pressure gauge read at the very high end of "espresso range" (i.e. no longer showing low/no pressure). So the machine itself isn't defective, but something else is causing the problem?

Something else like stale coffee or poor grind size would be the issue if you can generate pressure with a blind basket.

Since you've experience with three other identical machines, yet this one does not work, I'd have to think that the fourth one is defective. I do have some questions though, is any water coming out of the portafilter when you run the machine with no coffee? There should be quite a bit (called water debit). Assuming water is flowing, when you make coffee, does any come out (regardless of what the gauge says), and if it does how does it look/taste?

Jevenator: I've tried two types of beans, both freshly roasted from a local source, to no avail. What would constitute "poor grind size"? I've adjusted the grind size/grind amount settings to every available combination, also to no avail. Thanks!

Nunas: Quite a bit of water is indeed flowing through the portafilter when I run it without grounds. When I use grounds, it does indeed pull a normal shot (in terms of the amount of liquid)-it just has no pressure on the gauge, and the shot tastes very bitter/metallic with little crema. Thanks!

Are you using the built in grinder? I'm wondering if you didn't have this issue on other machines and this one only then maybe the burrs on this grinder are bad. Can you verify with another grinder or grind it from one of the machines that work?

When you say it flows like a normal shot like you get a nice slow spaghetti lines coming from your sprouted or is it kinda like gushing out.

I am indeed using the built in grinder, but unfortunately I do not have another grinder here against which to compare it.

The flow itself is gushing out, inconsistent, and not at all like a properly pressured shot. However, the amount of liquid that results is the same.